Education cannot exist in a vacuum. To learn and excel, students must feel free to communicate effectively with teachers, parents and administration. Likewise, there must be open communication between these stakeholders, so everyone remains on the same page. If you’re the parent of a school-age child, you should know what’s going on in their academic life. Similarly, school personnel should feel confident that a student’s family is supportive and concerned. A two-way communication channel is the best way to accomplish this goal.
At GIIS, everyone who works with your child is readily accessible to address any concerns you may have with your child’s learning, across curricula at school. In return, we ask our families to be equally transparent. In this way, students know they have support at home and at school, which builds confidence and feelings of security. There are multiple reasons why open communication between home and school is vital to a child’s success. At GIIS, we use different means of communication to work towards this goal.
Parents Need to Stay Informed on Child’s Progress at School
What’s happening with your child at school? Are they involved with classes they enjoy? Are they able to keep up? Is the work too easy or too hard? Do they participate in class? Or do they tend to linger on the sidelines?
These are all questions you may have as a parent. But as a parent, you can’t physically attend school with your child to see how they’re doing. This is why you must be able to talk to your child’s teachers and the administration at their school. At GIIS, we work hard to keep an open communication channel with each family. This allows us to address concerns, answer parent questions, offer praise and make recommendations for improvement. As a parent, it gives you easy access to the adults who see and work with your child every day.
When the lines of communication between home and school are healthy, it’s difficult for a student to fall between the cracks. No child becomes lost or forgotten. A parent, a teacher, or both can intervene early if a child is struggling. And early intervention is key to more successful outcomes.
Relationship Between Parents and Teachers is Valuable
The relationship between you and your child’s teacher is worth cultivating. When a child feels they have a supportive network at home and away from home, and everyone is working toward the same goals, even the most difficult tasks feel more manageable.
For this reason, we strive to make it as easy as possible for you to speak with those responsible for your child’s education. Our doors are always open to parents, and we offer multiple communication tools to reach families across various platforms. They include the following.
Email Communication
GIIS offers mygiis, an easy-to-use online portal that facilitates two-way communication between the school and parents. It enables the school to share important information with students’ families and allows parents to reach out to teachers. Through mygiis, you’ll receive newsletters from school administration, class teachers and school coordinators to keep you abreast with the latest and important information. In addition, you’ll be alerted to school events, activities and competitions. Your child’s attendance record, term calendar, progress report, fee details and other important announcements are also available on the platform.
Learning Platforms that Act as Communication Tools
GIIS students use different learning apps that also act as communication platforms, allowing easy interaction between the teachers and students. Through these platforms, the teachers can assign classwork or homework and the students can turn in their finished tasks. Moreover, since these apps can be downloaded on multiple devices, parents can see what’s happening in the class on a regular basis and stay updated about their child’s progress. Apps like Toddle, which is a teaching and learning platform, used for our IB Primary Years Programme students and Google Classroom used across different curricula, help students, parents and teachers to stay on top of things. Students and parents can access these apps from school-issued devices and home devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Parent-Teacher Meeting
Teachers at GIIS are always willing to meet with you to discuss your child’s progress and address any concerns you may have regarding school performance. Our parent-teacher meeting is one of our more valuable communication tools because it lets you speak face-to-face with the people who interact with your child daily. While a pandemic-driven world may call for virtual meetings, the idea still is to provide a personalised channel of communication. During a parent-teacher meeting, whether online or in-person, you can talk with the teacher about your child’s classwork and view samples of their work, as well as gain an outside perspective on their strengths, skills and areas of improvement.
Parent Orientation
GIIS’ parent orientation programme is an opportunity for families to get a first-hand experience of their child’s school environment, meet their teachers, see their workspace and familiarise themselves with the school community. Through our meet-and-greet sessions, you’ll meet members of the faculty and administration, as well as have an opportunity to socialise with other GIIS students and families.
Student Handbook
Our student handbook is available online as a printable PDF and outlines our school policies such as dress code, code of conduct, parent responsibilities and student expectations. Student handbooks are effective in disseminating information and it is especially beneficial to new students who are just entering or transferring to GIIS.
School Website
GIIS updates the school website periodically to keep online visitors abreast of what’s happening academically. Through our school blog and campus news sections, families stay caught up on current school events, activities on campus and other school news.
Social Media
GIIS keeps an official school social media page on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. These allow parents to stay caught up in real time with what’s happening at GIIS. In this way, parents get to know about various school events like competitions, community drives, upcoming informational webinars, and so on.
At GIIS, we’re constantly working to improve the lines of communication between home and school. If you’re interested in applying for admission to GIIS, we encourage you to book a campus tour today.
